What an amazing woman
Posted on Sat, May. 21, 2005
Doctor who founded women's clinics dies
Dr. Rochelle Peskin Godshall, 54, set up Turning Pointe sites
By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal staff writer
Dr. Rochelle Peskin Godshall, recognized as an innovator in women's health care, died Friday of liver cancer.
Known as a relentless caregiver, she was the founder of Turning Pointe, the region's first comprehensive women's health clinic, with offices in Akron, Green and Kent.
``Shelly made every patient feel like her most important patient,'' said her cousin, Scott Chaikin of Cleveland. ``She was one of those rare doctors who felt that medicine should not be about processing patients, but taking care of people.''
Services for Dr. Peskin Godshall, 54, are scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at Akron's Temple Israel, 133 Merriman Road.
Family members said she was a determined person, and whatever she undertook, she was intense about it. She was the one in the family who exerted the quiet voice of authority. She didn't have to be asked for help; she always took the initiative. She didn't just listen to people, she was a person of action.
In 1991, when she founded Turning Pointe, it was meant to address ``turning points'' in each phase of women's lives.
The clinic offered not only conventional medicine but also nontraditional medicine, including botanical medicine, mind-body interactions and nutrition. Also on staff were optional nurse midwives, physical therapists, nutritionists and counselors.
``She cared more about treating the whole person and not just the condition,'' said her father, Bernard Kuhr of Tucson, Ariz. ``She felt a woman doctor would be more empathetic to her patients.''
The clinics were well-received, and the practice was taking in 200 new patients a month. More doctors had to be hired, and the concept spread to neighboring cities. But family members say problems arose when insurance companies decided they had little interest in paying for wellness programs. The clinics closed in 2002.
Dr. Peskin Godshall was born in Topeka, Kan., but grew up in Dayton, where her father completed his residency. She earned her bachelor of arts degree at Hiram College and her medical degree at Wright State School of Medicine in Detroit.
Her father, a psychiatrist, said his family was listed in the Guinness Book of Records in the 1980s for having the most physicians (the Bernard Kuhr family). ``There were about 25 doctors then, and in one family of doctors, each of them married doctors.''
But Eunice Kuhr sets the record straight: That's not why her daughter became a doctor. She was working as a lab technician in a doctor's office when the doctor saw her interacting with the patients -- an interaction that went beyond her lab work -- and suggested she go to medical school.
But her parents knew that even as a high school student, she was a caregiver.
The story goes like this: Dr. Peskin Godshall was active in a community project called Summer in the City in Dayton. Two 5-year-olds walked into the center -- one black, one white -- and both were barefoot with infected sores on their legs and feet.
She located one of the parents and advised the parent to get the child to the emergency room. The parent refused.
The second child's parents couldn't be readily located, so she and another student took that child -- the black one -- to the hospital and signed papers stating they were the parents so the child could be treated with antibiotics.
``I'm surprised she wasn't charged with kidnapping,'' her father recalled. ``When I asked her why she didn't refer the case to the (government) agency, she said, `Who trusts agencies? They're just bureaucracies.' ''
She wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed and was always finding ways to help people.
Her father said: ``Even in college I remember one of her friends at Hiram was having personal problems, and she called and begged me to talk to her (the friend) and see what I could do for her.''
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Doctor who founded women's clinics dies
Dr. Rochelle Peskin Godshall, 54, set up Turning Pointe sites
By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal staff writer
Dr. Rochelle Peskin Godshall, recognized as an innovator in women's health care, died Friday of liver cancer.
Known as a relentless caregiver, she was the founder of Turning Pointe, the region's first comprehensive women's health clinic, with offices in Akron, Green and Kent.
``Shelly made every patient feel like her most important patient,'' said her cousin, Scott Chaikin of Cleveland. ``She was one of those rare doctors who felt that medicine should not be about processing patients, but taking care of people.''
Services for Dr. Peskin Godshall, 54, are scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at Akron's Temple Israel, 133 Merriman Road.
Family members said she was a determined person, and whatever she undertook, she was intense about it. She was the one in the family who exerted the quiet voice of authority. She didn't have to be asked for help; she always took the initiative. She didn't just listen to people, she was a person of action.
In 1991, when she founded Turning Pointe, it was meant to address ``turning points'' in each phase of women's lives.
The clinic offered not only conventional medicine but also nontraditional medicine, including botanical medicine, mind-body interactions and nutrition. Also on staff were optional nurse midwives, physical therapists, nutritionists and counselors.
``She cared more about treating the whole person and not just the condition,'' said her father, Bernard Kuhr of Tucson, Ariz. ``She felt a woman doctor would be more empathetic to her patients.''
The clinics were well-received, and the practice was taking in 200 new patients a month. More doctors had to be hired, and the concept spread to neighboring cities. But family members say problems arose when insurance companies decided they had little interest in paying for wellness programs. The clinics closed in 2002.
Dr. Peskin Godshall was born in Topeka, Kan., but grew up in Dayton, where her father completed his residency. She earned her bachelor of arts degree at Hiram College and her medical degree at Wright State School of Medicine in Detroit.
Her father, a psychiatrist, said his family was listed in the Guinness Book of Records in the 1980s for having the most physicians (the Bernard Kuhr family). ``There were about 25 doctors then, and in one family of doctors, each of them married doctors.''
But Eunice Kuhr sets the record straight: That's not why her daughter became a doctor. She was working as a lab technician in a doctor's office when the doctor saw her interacting with the patients -- an interaction that went beyond her lab work -- and suggested she go to medical school.
But her parents knew that even as a high school student, she was a caregiver.
The story goes like this: Dr. Peskin Godshall was active in a community project called Summer in the City in Dayton. Two 5-year-olds walked into the center -- one black, one white -- and both were barefoot with infected sores on their legs and feet.
She located one of the parents and advised the parent to get the child to the emergency room. The parent refused.
The second child's parents couldn't be readily located, so she and another student took that child -- the black one -- to the hospital and signed papers stating they were the parents so the child could be treated with antibiotics.
``I'm surprised she wasn't charged with kidnapping,'' her father recalled. ``When I asked her why she didn't refer the case to the (government) agency, she said, `Who trusts agencies? They're just bureaucracies.' ''
She wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed and was always finding ways to help people.
Her father said: ``Even in college I remember one of her friends at Hiram was having personal problems, and she called and begged me to talk to her (the friend) and see what I could do for her.''
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